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Updated: Sep 11, 2025
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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
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Precision Functional Neuroimaging Reveals Individually Specific Auditory Responses in Infants
Julia Moser1, Alyssa K Labonte2,3, Thomas J Madison1
1Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|August 13, 2025
Summary
Infant brains show conserved auditory processing but unique subsequent responses to stimuli. Individual brain activity patterns in infants may predict neurodevelopmental trajectories and risks.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Adaptive responses to environmental stimuli are crucial for cognitive development.
- Understanding individual differences in brain function is key to identifying neurodevelopmental trajectories and risks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate individual variability in brain responses to salient auditory stimuli using a precision functional imaging approach.
- To examine the relationship between brain functional networks and individual responses to auditory stimuli in infants.
Main Methods:
- Collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) data for a minimum of 60 minutes.
- Utilized an auditory oddball paradigm in ten infants with a mean postmenstrual age of 48 weeks.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated the feasibility of precision functional imaging in infants for studying individual responses to salient stimuli.
- Observed consistent responses in auditory processing areas but significant individual differences in other brain regions.
- Found individual response patterns to be relatively stable across runs, distinct from other participants.
Conclusions:
- Early unimodal processing of salient stimuli is conserved across infants.
- Subsequent perceptual processing exhibits individual-specific patterns during early development.
- Individual brain response patterns show promise as biomarkers for normative brain and cognitive development.
